Factors Affecting Eye Witness Testimony

Question 1

What is an eye witness testimony

Answer 1

Refers to an account given by people of an event they have witnessed and is the evidence that is usually given in court

Question 2

What are the 3 factors that affect the accuracy of EWT

Answer 2

.anxiety
.misleading info
.post event discussion

Question 3

What is a leading question

Answer 3

It is a question phrased in such as way as to prompt a particular kind of answer

Question 4

Who conducted the study for factors of EWT

Answer 4

Loftus and Palmer

Question 5

What was the aim of Loftus and palmers experiment

Answer 5

It was to examine the effect of leading questions on the accuracy of EWT

Question 6

What was the procedure of Loftus and Palmers experiment

Answer 6

45 american participants (students) watched film clips of car accidents and then have them questions to answer about the accident. The question was
‘About how fast were the cars going when they hit each other?’

Question 7

What was the findings and conclusions of Loftus and palmers experiment

Answer 7

estimated speed was calculated:
○ Contacted: 31.8 mph
○ Smashed: 40.5 mph
● Leading questions had biased the eyewitness recall of an event.
● The verb ‘smashed’ suggested that the speed of the car was much faster than when the verb was ‘contacted’ and the ppts altered their responses accordingly

Question 8

What were the 5 groups (5 verbs) that were usd

Answer 8

.hit
.smashed
.contacted
.bumped
.collided

Question 9

What are the strengths of Loftus and Palmers investigation

Answer 9

there is real world application as there is application to their findings of the criminal justice system

Question 10

What are the limitations of Loftus and Palmers study

Answer 10

.it lacks population validity as there is only 45 American students and so the study is both culturally biased and is also biased upon age
.they didn’t tell their participants the true aim of their search and so it went against the BPS code of ethics
.they also used artificial materials and so it may tell us little about how leading questions actually affect EWT

Question 11

what is post event discussion

Answer 11

when there is more than one witness to an event. Witnesses may talk about what they have seen with co-witnesses - or simply hear what they have experienced

Question 12

Why could memories be contaminated

Answer 12

If there is a discussion about an event between witnesses then it could lead to memory contamination

Question 13

What is an example of compliance and internalisation

Answer 13

Witnesses tend to go along with each other to either win social approval or if they believe witnesses are right or wrong

Question 14

Who did the research for post event discussion

Answer 14

Gabert ET AL.

Question 15

What was the aim for Gaberts study

Answer 15

To see if post event discussion had a possible impact on peoples EWT

Question 16

What was the procedure of Gaberts study

Answer 16

Participant’s were paired together. They were given the same video (a crime) however the video each ppts watched was from a different point of view to the other.
○ Ppts could see elements in the event the other could not.
● They then discussed with each other what they had seen on the video before they both completed a recall test.

Question 17

What were Gaberts findings

Answer 17

● 71% mistakenly recalled aspects of the event that they did not see in the video but had picked up in the post event discussion with the other participant.
● There was a control group (no post event discussion)
○ 0% errors made.

Question 18

What is the limitation of Gaberts study

Answer 18

It has questionable ecological validity and so these results do not reflect everyday examples of crime, where witnesses are exposed to less information

Question 19

What is a strength of Gaberts study

Answer 19

She tested 2 different populations (uni students and older adults) and found little difference. Therefore her results provide good population validity and allows us to conclude that post-event discussion affects younger and older adults in a similar way.

Question 20

What is the 3rd factors affecting EWT

Answer 20

Anxiety

Question 21

What was the conclusion that was reached about EWT after 30 years of research

Answer 21

30 years of research. Suggested that EWT is unreliable

Question 22

Who is Wells

Answer 22

They are a researcher who studied 40 people who were convicted and then release later after a result of DNA evidence

Question 23

What was found from the 40 people that Wells studied

Answer 23

That more than 90% of those obviated were wrongly convicted based on the basis of EWT

Question 24

What is the general effect of anxiety on EWT

Answer 24

There r both negative and positive effects so there is no general effect

Question 25

What is the weapon focus effect

Answer 25

Where the witnesses main focus is on the weapon being used in the crime and this causes a state of anxiety which leads to other details in the situation being overlooked and neglected

Question 26

What is anxiety

Answer 26

Anxiety is an unpleasant emotional state where we fear that something bad is about to happen

Question 27

Who studied anxiety for EWT

Answer 27

Johnson and Scott

Question 28

What was the aim for Johnson’s and Scott’s study

Answer 28

To investigate the effect of a weapon on EWT accuracy

Question 29

What wa the hypothesis of Johnsons and Scott’s study

Answer 29

That heighten anxiety would increase the accuracy of EWT

Question 30

What was the procedure

Answer 30

They led ppts to believe they were going to take part in a lab study and were made to wait in a waiting room.Whilst sitting in the waiting room the ppts heard an argument in the next room. There were 2 conditions: low anxiety and high anxiety conditions

Question 31

What was the low anxiety condition

Answer 31

Low-anxiety condition: A man walked through the waiting area, carrying a pen with
grease on his hands.

Question 32

What was the high anxiety condition

Answer 32

High-anxiety condition: ppts heard a heated argument, this was accompanied by the sound of breaking glass. A man walked out of the room, holding a paper knife that was covered in blood.

Question 33

What were the findings and conclusion

Answer 33

● 49% of the ppts who had seen the man carrying a pen were able to identify him.
● This was compared to 33% of ppts who had seen the man carrying the paper knife.
● Tunnel theory of memory

Question 34

What is the tunnel theory of memory

Answer 34

It argues that witness’s attentions narrows to focus on a weapon, because it is a source of danger and anxiety. Supporting the weapon focus explanation

Question 35

What are the 2 issues with John and Scotts

Answer 35

Deception and that it was carried out in a lab

Question 36

Explain deception as an issue

Answer 36

The participants were led to believe that they were sitting in the waiting room waiting for the experiment to begin, when in fact that was part of the real experiment. However this was needed in order for thee to be no demand characteristics despite it being an ethical issues

Question 37

How was the deception dealt with

Answer 37

They told the participants that they can withdraw at the end if they wanted to if they don’t want it published

Question 38

What was the issue with the study being conducted in a lab

Answer 38

This could lead to demand characteristics which would affect the validity as we may not know if there was actually a relationship with anxiety

Question 39

What were the studies that contradicted Johnson and Scotts findings

Answer 39

Yuille and Cutshalls, Riniolo

Question 40

What did Yuile and Cutshall and Riniolo study

Answer 40

That anxiety has a positive effect on EWT

Question 41

What wa the procedure for Y&C

Answer 41

It was during a real life shooting where the shop owner shot a theirs dead. There were 21 witnesses, 13 agreed to take part in the study.Interviews were held 4-5 months.These were compared with the original police interviews made at the time of the crime.The witnesses were asked to rate how stressed they had felt at the time of the incident, using a seven point scale.

Question 42

What were the findings for Y&C study

Answer 42

Witnesses were very accurate in their accounts and there was little change in the amount or accuracy after 5 months. Some details were less accurate.
Those ppts who reported the highest levels of stress were most accurate (88% compared to 75% for the less stressed group)

Question 43

What are the strengths of Y&C

Answer 43

Creating anxiety has ethical issues due to psychological harm so with this study it already happened so there is no need to create it hence why it is better due to less ethical issues